Dasa-Brāhmaṇa Jātaka

The Master told this story at Jetavana, about an incomparable gift. The king of Kosala, while giving a great gift, had examined five hundred monks with the Master as their chief and had given to those among them who were most holy. An earlier birth story in the collection explains the occasion.

Afterwards the monks sat in the Hall of Truth and spoke of the king's goodness. They said that in giving the incomparable gift he had given in a case of great merit.

The Master came in and asked what they were discussing, and they told him. He said it was no wonder that the king of Kosala, as a follower of such a teacher, gave with discrimination. Wise men of old, before a Buddha had arisen, had also given with discrimination. With these words he told a story of the past. The tale is numbered 495 in the Jātaka, the collection of birth stories in the Pali Canon.

In the kingdom of Kuru, in the city of Indapatta, a king named Koravya reigned, of the stock of Yuddhiṭṭhila. His adviser in things worldly and spiritual was a minister named Vidhura, who was the Bodhisatta. The king's great almsgiving set all India in a stir.

Yet among all those who received and enjoyed his gifts, there was none who kept even the Five Virtues. They were wicked to a man, and the king's giving brought him no satisfaction.

The king reflected that the fruit of discriminate giving is great. Wishing to give to the virtuous, he resolved to take counsel with the wise Vidhura. When Vidhura came to wait on him, the king bade him sit and put his question.

The king asked Vidhura to seek out brahmins who were good and wise. They should be men free from evil lust, worthy to eat his food. Only then could he give and reap a harvest of good.

Vidhura answered that such holy men are hard to find. Of brahmins, he said, there are ten kinds, and he would distinguish them. At the end of each he asked whether the king would seek such brahmins, and the king answered that these had no right to the name and had lost their brahminhood.

The first kind carry sacks of roots on their backs, gather healing herbs, bathe and recite spells. They are physician-like. The second ring bells and go before the king, drive chariots and carry messages. They are like servants.

The third run to meet the king with a waterpot and crooked staff in towns and villages, and will not move on until a gift is brought. They are like tax-men. The fourth have long nails, hairy limbs, foul teeth and matted hair, and go about covered with dust like beggars. Vidhura called them hewers of wood.

The fifth trade in fruits, wooden planks, tooth-sticks, sugar-cane baskets, honey and ointments. They are like merchants. The sixth follow trade and husbandry, keep flocks of goats, and give and take in marriage, even selling their daughters for gold. Vidhura likened them to the Vessa and Ambaṭṭha classes, the merchant caste and a lower mixed-descent caste.

The seventh are chaplains who tell fortunes or geld and mark animals for pay, and in whose villages many animals are slaughtered. They are like butchers. The eighth carry sword, shield and battle-axe, and stand ready to guide a caravan before the merchants. They are like herdsmen or bold bandits.

The ninth build huts and lay traps in the woods, and catch fish, tortoises, hares and wild cats. They are hunters. The tenth, for love of gold, lie beneath the royal bed at a soma sacrifice, a Vedic rite offering the sacred soma drink, while the king bathes above them. Vidhura compared them to barbers. After each description the king said they were not what he sought.

Then Vidhura described the true brahmins in two stanzas. They are wise and good, he said, and free from the deeds of evil lust. They eat only one meal of rice, never touch strong drink, and are fit to eat the king's offered food.

The king asked where these brahmins lived. Vidhura answered that they dwelt in the further Himalaya, in a cave of Mount Nanda. The king asked him to bring them by his power, and said with great joy that there should be no delay.

Vidhura agreed, and asked the king to send a drum through the city. The city was to be gloriously adorned, and all its people were to give alms, undertake the holy-day vows and pledge themselves to virtue. The king and his court were to take the holy-day vows too.

Vidhura himself ate his meal at early dawn and took the holy-day vows. At evening he sent for a basket of jasmine-colored flowers and made a full prostration together with the king.

He recalled the virtues of the Pacceka Buddhas, beings who attain enlightenment on their own but do not teach it to others, and spoke his invitation. Let the five hundred Pacceka Buddhas who dwell in the Northern Himalaya, in the cave of Mount Nanda, take food from them tomorrow. Then he cast eight handfuls of flowers into the air.

The flowers fell upon the five hundred Pacceka Buddhas where they lived. They reflected and understood, and accepted the invitation. They said that the wise Vidhura was no mean creature, for he had the seed of a Buddha within him and would be a Buddha in this very cycle. Vidhura knew they would come, because the flowers did not return: had the invitation been refused, the flowers would have fallen back to earth instead of staying with the Pacceka Buddhas.

Next day the king honored the Pacceka Buddhas and prepared precious seats for them on a great dais. After waiting for the time of their bodily needs at Lake Anotatta, they traveled through the air and descended in the royal courtyard. The king and the Bodhisatta received their bowls, led them up to the terrace and seated them. They gave them gift-water and served them food, hard and soft, with faith in their hearts.

After the meal the king invited them for the next day, and so on for seven days. On the seventh day he gave them all the requisites. They gave thanks and returned through the air to the same place, and the requisites went with them.

The Master ended his discourse by saying it was no wonder that the king of Kosala, as his follower, gave him the incomparable gift, for wise men of old did the same when there was no Buddha. Then he identified the birth. Ānanda was the king of those days, and the wise Vidhura was the Master himself.

The king's problem was not a lack of generosity. He gave in abundance, but the abundance went to people who did not live by the virtues the gift was meant to honor. Vidhura's list is therefore a lesson about discernment. The word brahmin, he says, is earned by conduct, and a trade does not make one holy.

The story ends with generosity made whole. The city adorned itself, its people took vows, and the king gave to the worthy. The invitation went out by flowers and reverence rather than by messengers. For a devotee this suggests that a gift is complete only when both the giver and the receiver are fit for it.